As part of a Glenwood Springs Middle School project, students studying persuasive writing used letters to the editor published in the Post Independent as examples of people voicing opinions. The students composed their own persuasive letters as part of the project. Some of the letters will be published today and others on a future Education page.Hi! My name is Jessy Salazar. I’m 12 years old. I’m from Guadalajara, Jalisco. I live in Glenwood Springs. I’m a student from Glenwood Springs Middle School. I’m writing this letter because I agree with Hopper Rix that we should do Pennies for Peace in every store, restaurant, school, house and hotel. People usually throw pennies away, and we can donate them instead. Pennies for Peace is a program for children in Pakistan and Afghanistan who don’t have schools or clean water. What we need to do is collect Pennies and help them build a school and help them buy materials. Think about them, people. They don’t have schools and we do. For many of us that have schools, we don’t even want to go! They want to go, but they can’t. Why? Because they don’t have a school to go to. The only thing that they do is write in the mud with a stick. Isn’t that sad? Also, we have pencils and what do we do with them? We break them or throw them away, right? Think about it, people. Please put a jar in your office, house or restaurant, and when it is full donate it. Thank you for listening to me, and I hope you help give the children in Pakistan and Afghanistan an education. They are going to be so thankful to you. Please help them. Thanks!Jessy Salazarseventh gradeHi! Mi name is Brayan. I live in Glenwood Springs. I study in GSMS. I am 12 years old and this letter is about something that I care about.This letter is about how the U.S.A. needs to change the laws for immigrants. If immigrants cannot stay here, their poor little kids are going to be here by themselves. Maybe laws can change for immigrants who have kids.The new laws should say that people who have kids should apply for permission to stay here receive permission. Thank you for listening to me and helping immigrants and their kids.Brayan Angulo seventh gradeMy name is Carlos Santacruz. I’m a student at GSMS. I live in Glenwood Springs. I’m bilingual, and I’m an immigrant. I’m a great student. The other day I was watching TV and I saw on the news a lot of immigrants who were dropping out of high school. They sometimes had to work for money or they dropped out because they were born in Mexico and school is hard for them.I think that all of us need to have an education. I have a big brother; his name is Bernardo Santacruz, and he goes to GSHS. He wants to go to college, and he is trying to get a scholarship like other people.It is hard for us to go to college because it is expensive and because of the laws. Please help us change the laws to allow immigrants to go college for a fair price. With a better education, we can make the earth a better place because education changes everything. Thank you for your attention. Please think about this; I believe we should have an education, too.Carlos Santacruzseventh gradeHi my name is Jonathan Padua. I live in Glenwood Springs. I study in GSMS and I am 12 years old.I read Hopper Rix’s letter to the editor and I agree with her because Pennies for Peace can change the life of a kid in Pakistan.We people can help them because it’s easy to put money in a bottle or a jar every day. Did you know that with only one cent you give them a pencil? But more importantly, they don’t have schools or teachers. Can you help me change their lives? For more information, go to http://www.penniesforpeace.org. Thank you for reading my letter.Jonathan Paduaseventh gradeMy name is Marlyn Bustamante. I’m 12 years old. I live in Glenwood Springs. I’m a student of GSMS, and I want to tell people how we can improve the river path. My idea is that we need to put lights on the river path. I think this is a fantastic idea because we will have more security – no more accidents and more people can be safe. If people of Glenwood Springs can do this, kids can ride their bikes in the night.Thank you so much for reading this letter.Like Margaret Mead said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world – indeed it’s the only thing that ever has.”Marlyn B., 12 years oldseventh gradeMy name is Jemimar. I’m a sixth-grader at GSMS. We are studying persuasive writing in my English class. I believe that Glenwood Springs schools need to have more classes offered. Some good classes would be a dance class, an ecology class and more classes so you can learn.If we had more classes, people would be able to choose what they want. Also, we would complete classes and do more projects. Finally, that is how kids will learn more. I thank you for listening to me. We love this idea because the kids can have more classes. Jemimar Sotelo Moncadasixth gradeHi ! My name is Fernanda Rangel. I’m in eighth grade in Glenwood Springs Middle School. I would like to tell you about immigration because I’m one of them. You may think it’s easy, but it’s not because we suffer a lot to come here. When I passed the border I was afraid that I was going to die. There are many problems with immigration. Deportation is one of them. Many families are separated because officials take some of the families away, especially the parents. They send them to their home countries to stay and the children stay here, sometimes with other families, sometimes alone.Another problem is that sometimes the officials trick the immigrants, like they are bad people. I think this is not fair for us. We are not trying to take the jobs of Americans like some people think.I hope you can do something, please. I think it is important to help this country, especially the Latinos. We are only trying to get a better education and life. I hope you can help and try to improve the future for our children. Fernanda Rangeleighth gradeHi! My name is Daniela Quezada. I’m a student at Glenwood Springs Middle School. I want to talk about the problem with immigration and how it affects immigrants. First, the immigrants come to the U.S.A. to work, not to do bad things. When ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) catches them, they treat them so badly, like they were not important. The immigration officials don’t think that one day the U.S.A. will need all the Mexican people. We can help the immigrants by giving them papers or changing the laws. Also, racism is a problem. We need to stop this because in school the children don’t play with each other. The Mexicans and Americans are separated. They could live better, and the children, too, if there were no racism. The Mexicans shouldn’t think bad things about U.S.A., and the U.S.A. shouldn’t think bad things about Mexico. We can live happy and together. We can change the laws and people can think about it. Also, the opportunities will come for everyone. Then, the U.S. and the Mexicans will close the doors to have friendship and a good life.I want to help them with all my heart. Let’s renew and make peace. Thank you for listening, and I hope that you think about it for peace. Thank you with my all heart. Daniela Quezada eighth gradeI am a student at GSMS. I wrote this letter to the newspaper because I want to help the kids in Pakistan. I want to help them because they don’t have schools. We can help by donating change. If you give a penny, do you know what can you buy with it? Well you can buy one pencil. Imagine what you can get with $2. Please help us by getting a bottle and collecting change. Then send it to Pennies for Peace.Please help the kids in Pakistan.L. Moraleseighth gradeHi, my name is Tania, but you can call me Tina. I’m a sixth-grader at GSMS. I’m writing about how sixth-graders can’t join school dances!It’s not fair that seventh- and eighth-graders have fun, and sixth-graders don’t get to have anything. Sixth-graders need to have fun because it’s part of our lives.Finally, we want to join dances so we can listen to music and eat snacks.So, please convince the principal to let us join the dances. That’s why I wrote to you. Thank you for listening.Tania Carrillosixth gradeMy name is Grecia Rodriguez. I’m a sixth-grader at GSMS. We are studying persuasive writing in my English class. I want to clean the earth.I believe that we should have more trash cans and recycling bins in parks and around the town because people throw a lot of trash on the ground. People should recycle bags and cans so they could reuse them again and again. Second, we should put signs everywhere in the town that say “Please don’t throw trash on the ground. Recycle.” Finally, if we do this people will learn how to not throw trash on the ground.Thank you for listening to me. This is how we can help and save the earth.Grecia Rodriguezsixth gradeMy name is Osiris Aguilar. I am a student from GSMS. I’m 12 years old. I’m from Chiapas, Mexico. I live in Glenwood Springs. I’m writing this letter because I believe there should be no smoking in public places.Smoking is not good because it damages people in their stomachs. When we are playing in the park, we smell cigarette smoke. It is horrible for us and everybody. It also damages your stomach and your lungs.Please, I need help for my life and for many children. Thanks for listening.Osiris Aguilarseventh gradeI am Alejandra Leach. I am 13 years old. I am a student in GSMS. I live in Glenwood Springs.I think that the government of all the countries should try to improve the economy of their countries, so that the people won’t immigrate to another place. If they do this, people won’t leave their homes, their family and their friends. It is terrible, I know because I lived it.I want the leaders of all countries to think of the people that elected them and work for them, now! Please.Alejandra Leacheighth grade I’m a GSMS student. I’m 13 years old. I think that everyone should stop racism, it makes life bad. It’s not good for people to fight because of their different colors or their different religions. I don’t think that anybody is different from anybody else. We are all human. If everyone came to a big place to shake hands they would finally know that they are the same.Thank you for listening.Mauricio Bricenoeighth grade My name is Kevin Rangel. I live in Glenwood Springs.I believe you could help everyone by putting cameras in the street so people will be safe at night. If we have cameras, kids won’t be stolen at the river. Cameras will help the police catch the bad guys. I heard in Denver they put up cameras and they caught people who were doing graffiti. I think we should put cameras in Glenwood, too.Thank you for reading and listing to my letter. Thanks for changing the world.Kevin Rangelseventh gradeMy name is Cornelio M. Hernandez. I’m a student at Glenwood Springs Middle School. I’m in seventh grade. I live in Glenwood Springs.I believe that you can help stop pollution. We should put recycling bins at the parks, streets and in all the schools. If people recycle, they will make less thrash and stop pollution. If you recycle more you save trees and other resources. Also, people should stop selling soda cans and cardboard because it saves our resources.We can put recycle bins by the trash cans and tell the chief of the stores to not sell too much cardboard or soda cans.Thank you for your attention. Cornelio Moreno Hernandezseventh grade